Veil of Shadows
by AlessandraAlessia
Summary: Shepard was an orphan living on omega, she had to work just to stay alive. Her skills were deadly. She was feared by many, at only 17 she was one of the best in her profession, when the alliance finds her and re-unites her with her brother can they put her on the right track? This is my retelling of ME1 in which Shepard had an alternate background- Shenko!


Alexia travelled through the ventilation shaft making an effort not to alert any of the numerous guards scattered throughout the building of her presence, all armed with weapons, which she had no doubt that they could wield with deadly precision; not that she had much to worry about; she had carefully planned this mission and knew this building like the back of her hand, when she reached a vent, she looked down into the room below; her lengthy brown ponytail flicking into her face. She saw a single guard in the room, she inaudibly made her way over the vent and continued until she reached the next room. This type of work suited her well, she was like a shadow, able to move without being seen or heard, able to fade into her surroundings and use her lithe and petite figure to her advantage. she didn't particularly love her job, nor did she despise it, she needed the money and this was the only way she knew how to get it.

She continued through the vent until she reached her destination, she peeped down through the vent and her sapphire coloured eyes searched for her target, she saw the Asari, Thalia, directly below her; sitting at her desk, staring blankly at the data pad she held in her hands. She scanned the room looking for any camera's she spotted one in the right corner of the room and quickly disabled it, from what she could see from her positioning there were no guards in the room, she couldn't see one portion of the room due to her positioning but she had hacked in to their security logs a while back and knew that Thalia didn't trust even her own guards enough to be in the room with her, if the logs were accurate there would be two guards situated outside the door however, if she could perform her task without alerting these guards she would have an easy escape .

She took a deep breath readying herself; this was it, the moment weeks of planning had gone in to. She ran over her plan briefly in her head and readied herself, she flared her biotics becoming a vivid blue, she dropped down from the shaft and sprung forward silently with such poise and meticulousness that could only come from years of training. She reached forwards and in one fluid movement she snapped Thalia's head to the right, killing her instantaneously, without so much as a whisper for help. Alexia took a sigh of relief, she had done it; all she had to do now was escape.

Alexia looked up, about to jump back in to the ventilation shaft and make her exit when she felt herself being grabbed from behind, she was startled by a deep voice.

"I assume where too late then, Alexia Shepard I presume? "the voice asked.

"How do you know who I am?" she said failing at keeping an even voice, her heart felt like it was thrashing so fast it would explode from her chest. She began analysing her situation, she was being held by one man and he had two accomplices, which meant it was three against one; the odds were not in her favour.

"We were sent to get you, we know what you've been up to we have a bit of a proposition for you" he stated in his orotund voice.

She surveyed them once again, they looked like alliance soldiers; she began to panic, she had been caught; she had never thought about what she would do in if she got caught, she had always gotten away. she had to get away; she didn't want to spend the rest of her life in prison, she was only seventeen for goodness sakes!

She looked around the room assessing her options, she couldn't take on three armed alliance soldiers! There was a window, she could jump? But she was three stories up and how would she get away from the man who currently had a strong grip on her. She knew she had to try her chances, she manoeuvred out of his grip, just like she had been taught in her years of training and made a sprint for the window, unfortunately for her he had predicted this move and another one of his soldiers was standing there with his gun pointed toward her.

She heard the man laughing it came out like a low rumble "I was hoping I wouldn't have to use these" he mentioned pointing to the handcuffs in his hands.

Alexia put her hands up in surrender and let the officers take her away.

She had been taken in to an interrogation room, it was a simple room with walls that were painted a dull grey with nothing but a table in the middle; she was handcuffed to her chair, she had flared her biotics a few times trying to break off the hand cuffs. No such luck.

The man from earlier entered the room and sat across from her.

"I should probably introduce myself; I'm Anderson. Now, you may be wondering why you are here….we have been monitoring you Alexia, the Asari you just killed? We spent 4 months researching trying to track her down only to be beaten there by a seventeen year old, it was damn hard to find you, you never leave trace" he said pounding his fist on the table, to emphasise his words.

Alexia stared at him trying not to give away any emotions.

"There is no doubt in my mind that the people you killed deserved to die, that Asari? She was the leader of a smuggling ring on Omega, but what I want to know is how did you get involved? You're one of the best I've seen; go in, kill the target and leave no trace, we've been trying to find you for at least a year, you've been doing a lot of our work for us"

Alexia stared up at him, keeping a straight face.

He chuckled "Alexia, what are your options?, you can speak to me and find out this deal I'm offering of you can go into prison, after all murder is murder no matter how guilty the victim; your choice"

Alexia hesitated for a moment but realised that he was right. "When you're a orphan living on omega you must have money and a place to stay, a sixteen year old girl living alone in the slums? It would be suicide, I'm good at what I do, so why not get paid for It?"

Anderson smiled, "we think you have a lot of potential Alexia, we recovered your brother from Illium and we think…"

"You found Tom? I haven't seen him since her was sent to Illium with the company" Alexia exclaimed excited at the prospect of seeing her brother again for the first time in about 4 years.

" Yes we found him, that brings us back to our deal, you and Tom are two very talented soldiers, we feel that in the future you will be very valuable assets to the alliance and with proper training you could become great soldiers, you have very strong biotic skills and Tom is very promising with his weaponry, we can offer you training and a place to stay, what do you think?

"I…I…yes I agree"

Alexia smiled, she realised that her life might be taking a turn for the better, she wouldn't have to work her guts out just to stay alive; after years of adversity and poverty. Things were getting better.


End file.
